I think there are several reasons why people have chosen—and I use the word “chosen” specifically because I think most people now have a luxury of choice when it comes to their medical care—not to vaccinate their children. One is that they haven’t seen these illnesses. Most people with young children have never seen a case of measles; they’ve never seen mumps, rubella, polio, or whooping cough; so these illnesses are just abstractions to them. Their families are healthy, so why should they worry about something they’ve never seen?

And there’s the concern that these vaccines cause autism. No matter how many studies are done to show in hundreds of thousands of children that there is no association between immunizations and the development of autism, there’s still that inkling of fear. Because most people know what autism looks like. They don’t know what measles looks like, but they understandably want to do everything they can to prevent autism.

Another issue—especially in what one would call “health-conscious” communities in California and parts of Colorado—is this notion that vaccines have what people call “toxins” in them. This is a very tricky word, because most non-scientists don’t really know what a toxin is. Vaccines are not toxic. The air we breathe is much more toxic than the vaccines that children receive. They receive more viral and bacterial exposure just by being outside for a few hours than they would from vaccines. But there’s this pseudoscientific idea, “I’m going to keep my children natural and healthy and feed them organic food and protect them from any unnecessary toxic exposure,” that seems to stand in opposition to vaccines.

"The world is suffering more today from the good people who want to mind other men's business than it is from the bad people who are willing to let everybody look after their own individual affairs." - Clarence Darrow

"The only conclusion that can be drawn from the study is that there is no signal to suggest a relationship between MMR and the development of autism in children with or without a sibling who has autism," King wrote in the accompanying editorial. "Taken together, some dozen studies have now shown that the age of onset of ASD does not differ between vaccinated and unvaccinated children, the severity of course of ASD does not differ between vaccinated and unvaccinated children, and now the risk of ASD recurrence in families does not differ between vaccinated and unvaccinated children."

I saw this earlier, and it actually pissed me off. The deniers gained so much steam that we're still having to disprove what has been thoroughly disproved, and we are wasting money, brains, and hours doing it. Those assets could have spent this time researching autism itself, creating new vaccines, or studying some other real issue. Instead, we've had to spend even more resources showing, once again, that pigs still do not have wings.

Under the bill, families who do not want their children to receive vaccines for a nonmedical reason would have to home-school their children. Children who are currently in school without vaccines could remain, though youngsters would would be expected to show proof of vaccination when they enter kindergarten and seventh grade.

Under the bill, families who do not want their children to receive vaccines for a nonmedical reason would have to home-school their children. Children who are currently in school without vaccines could remain, though youngsters would would be expected to show proof of vaccination when they enter kindergarten and seventh grade.

When a minority refuses to listen to logic and science and has the potential to put a lot of people's health at risk, I'm totally okay with the government stepping in and making them choose between isolation or safety.

Under the bill, families who do not want their children to receive vaccines for a nonmedical reason would have to home-school their children. Children who are currently in school without vaccines could remain, though youngsters would would be expected to show proof of vaccination when they enter kindergarten and seventh grade.

When a minority refuses to listen to logic and science and has the potential to put a lot of people's health at risk, I'm totally okay with the government stepping in and making them choose between isolation or safety.

If I may:

Paingod wrote:When a minority refuses to listen to logic and science and has the potential to put a lot of people's health at risk, I'm totally okay with the government stepping in and making them choose between isolation or one type of safety or another.

" Hey OP, listen to my advice alright." -Tha General"No scientific discovery is named after its original discoverer." -Stigler's Law of Eponymy, discovered by Robert K. MertonMYT

Under the bill, families who do not want their children to receive vaccines for a nonmedical reason would have to home-school their children. Children who are currently in school without vaccines could remain, though youngsters would would be expected to show proof of vaccination when they enter kindergarten and seventh grade.

When a minority refuses to listen to logic and science and has the potential to put a lot of people's health at risk, I'm totally okay with the government stepping in and making them choose between isolation or safety.

The boy with the first case of diphtheria in Spain for 28 years has died, Catalan regional health authorities have told The Spain Report. The boy had not been vaccinated against the disease, which his parents now attribute to being “tricked” by anti-vaccination groups.

And the bad news doesn't stop there. Already eight other Spanish children have been found to be carrying the Corynebacterium diptheriae bacteria that causes diphtheria. Fortunately, all these children had been vaccinated, and consequently have not developed the disease, but the danger of other unvaccinated children becoming exposed remains high.
...
The six year old boy was admitted to Vall d'Hebron hospital on the 3rd of June. As a result of the long period since there had been any cases of the disease, Spain had no stocks of the diptheria antitoxin and had to get some delivered from Russia. It is not known whether or not faster availability of the antitoxin would have saved the boy's life, now if the carrier who infected the boy has been identified.
...
Besides lying about the risks of vaccination, the anti-vaccine movement has routinely diminished the seriousness of the diseases reduced or eliminated by injections. The symptoms of diphtheria - including heart and kidney damage and lymph glands so swollen they can prevent breathing and death rates above 10% - are so severe that the approach hadn't been taken in this case.
...
However, as the World Health Organization makes clear, “diphtheroid toxoid is one of the safest vaccines available” and it is the high global rate of immunization that has led to the dramatic declines in deaths from this disease

From the Greek for "Pair of Leather Scrolls" (Diphthera) -- refers to the membrane that ends up growing in your throat, releasing toxins that can kill you. A drawing (not offensive) of the "pair of scrolls":

Smoove_B wrote:From the Greek for "Pair of Leather Scrolls" (Diphthera) -- refers to the membrane that ends up growing in your throat, releasing toxins that can kill you. A drawing (not offensive) of the "pair of scrolls":

Under the bill, families who do not want their children to receive vaccines for a nonmedical reason would have to home-school their children. Children who are currently in school without vaccines could remain, though youngsters would would be expected to show proof of vaccination when they enter kindergarten and seventh grade.

When a minority refuses to listen to logic and science and has the potential to put a lot of people's health at risk, I'm totally okay with the government stepping in and making them choose between isolation or safety.

Only children with serious health issues would qualify for exemption from the new measures. Unvaccinated children would have to be home-schooled. Mississippi and West Virginia are the only other two states with such strict requirements.

That last bit surprises me, although that surprise says something unflattering about my preconceptions.

Also, I apologize for this in advance but it has to be done...

Time and tide melt the snowman.

There are worlds out there where the sky is burning, where the sea's asleep and the rivers dream, people made of smoke and cities made of song. Somewhere there's danger, somewhere there's injustice and somewhere else the tea is getting cold. Come on, Ace, we've got work to do.
-- The Doctor

"The world is suffering more today from the good people who want to mind other men's business than it is from the bad people who are willing to let everybody look after their own individual affairs." - Clarence Darrow

I believe I've mentioned this previously, but I have a cousin that is neck deep into the whole anti-vax thing. She recently posted this on her FB page - make sure you read the comments as they are truly gold, Jerry - pure gold!

DD* wrote:I believe I've mentioned this previously, but I have a cousin that is neck deep into the whole anti-vax thing. She recently posted this on her FB page - make sure you read the comments as they are truly gold, Jerry - pure gold!

DD* wrote:I believe I've mentioned this previously, but I have a cousin that is neck deep into the whole anti-vax thing. She recently posted this on her FB page - make sure you read the comments as they are truly gold, Jerry - pure gold!

DD* wrote:I believe I've mentioned this previously, but I have a cousin that is neck deep into the whole anti-vax thing. She recently posted this on her FB page - make sure you read the comments as they are truly gold, Jerry - pure gold!